Slowing down for fuel conservation -- Part II
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
From Trucks At Work:Changing landscape of driving
"A lot is changing out on the highways today – some good and some bad. We all know rising fuel prices are rapidly slashing the amount of miles four-wheelers log every day, with commuters scurrying for mass transit and vacationers becoming “staycationers.” Ways to restore our woefully maintained roadway infrastructure are also being hotly debated, from raising fuel taxes sales taxes and adding more tolls to the outright leasing of our roads to private companies – some note even based in the U.S.
But there are other significant changes we must start addressing, too. One theme I’ve been harping on is a return to a national 55 mph speed limit for cars, light trucks, and commercial trucks – both to reduce the nation’s consumption of fuel and vehicle crashes."
posted by benmcclanahan @ 7:40 AM,
2 Comments:
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At July 15, 2008 at 4:20 PM,
Unknown said...
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My two cents (3.5 euro): A national 55 MPH speed limit would certainly reduce our consumption of fossil fuel, if adhered to, but I'm thinking the general public will have nothing to do with it. And if a reduced national speed limit were to pass our pathetic Congress, would cities all along our Intrastate system need additional squads to enforce it? With the amount of road rage surfacing these past few years, would 55 MPH add fuel to that fire?
I say stricter CAFE standards for cars and light trucks, and incentives from the government to auto manufacturers for the retooling of plants to produce vehicles running on alternative fuels.
Commercial vehicles will forever consume massive amounts of energy. I often wonder why we aren't testing a two tank SVO (straight vegetable oil) system; diesel on one side, corn oil on the other. -
At July 16, 2008 at 11:16 AM,
benmcclanahan said...
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I agree completely. I think those are all very good points. Lowering the national speed limit probably won't help a great deal and it raises far more problems than answers.
I do think the more people are educated about reducing speed and are shown how much they can actually save, we could see a reasonable drop in fuel consumption. It certainly would be a good start.
Thanks for the comments.
